I'm not one to look a housing system in the mouth, but I honestly expected this to come (if it ever did) in the form of "you can finally customize the interior of your ship." And maybe do something in it.

« Last Edit: March 07, 2014, 01:23:09 PM by Stormwaltz »

Nothing in this post represents the views of my current or previous employers.

Letting a few people throw unlimited money at them proved to be a better decision than making everyone spend $15.

I'm surprised it's not your ship, but maybe they felt the space was too limiting? Maybe that will still be an option. I certainly think of my ship as my home more than any terrestrial location. Guess we'll see once they announce some details.

(In SWG it was fine to have a home on a planet, but they were massive and open, rather than tiny zones. Plus player cities and multiple houses and all that.)

I don't think it's because the ship interior space is limiting. The housing is more along the lines of "easy to throw together an interior, call it a 'feature', and charge major cartel coins for customization options." Probably going to be a whole expansion centered around this being its (only) feature.

Ship is sufficient for me; couldn't care less for an apartment.

Would love the apartment to be implemented with cartel coins rent, just so I can laugh at all the fans of the idea.

1.5 million credit "value" for 4 empty rooms, probably 10-20 million for fully upgraded "palace" (and there are 3 for you to get), and I'm going to take a wild guess and say that to launch the guild flagship the whole guild may need to grind 500 million to "build" it first.

Numbers above are impossible to gather unless you're subscriber (so you don't have limits on your wallet), and will make a very nice cash sink to empty out all the level 55's who are sitting on 20-40 million per character. Plus, their subscriber base will increase because it's a new expansion, and all the re-subscribers will probably spend real cash on cartel coins like crazy, cause it's new shiny.

4 interior rooms / environments. Like we already have in our ships. Such hard work they do...

For the past year, we've made it our goal to share updates and information on what’s happening in the studio and our upcoming plans for the game. We got the message that you appreciate transparency and want to know what we are working on. With that in mind, we wanted to share a change in plans to our most recently announced digital expansion, Galactic Strongholds.

We have been listening to what you, our players, were hoping to see from the Galactic Strongholds expansion. When playing early builds of Galactic Strongholds it became that clear that our June Early Access date was simply not enough. For this to truly feel like an expansion, it needs to include the full set of features, including those originally coming later in the year. So what does this mean? We are moving the start date for Subscriber Early Access from June 24th to August 19th in order to deliver to you the most features at the highest level of quality. The result will be a far more compelling experience, including additional features such as the ability to place your vehicles and pets in your Stronghold and for Guilds to conquer planets . To conquer a planet, Guilds must complete weekly Conquest events earning points to place at the top of the Guild Leaderboards. Conquering a planet gives the Guild special perks and rewards. This means that Subscribers will be the first to play the full slate of expansion features (everything!) at the start of Subscriber Early Access, a month before everyone else.

This additional time allows us to add:

Conquest Events: use the power of your Stronghold to dominate these events and earn rewardsGuild Flagships will now offer expanded functionality for Guilds:Provide powerful buffs to Guild members from orbitTransport entire groups to your personal coordinates instantaneouslyCompete in Conquest Events to conquer entire planetsNew Stronghold: Tatooine HomesteadVehicles, Mounts, Pets, and Companion Characters can be placed as decorations in StrongholdsCombine that with the original feature list…

3 unique Player Strongholds, one on each Capital World plus the Nar Shaddaa Sky Palace2 faction-specific Guild Flagships (Valor-class Cruiser for the Republic and Harrower-class Dreadnaught for the Empire)Legacy Stronghold StorageAbility to gain Prestige tracked on Prestige LeaderboardsHundreds of Decorations to discover and collect…and the result is an expansion that’s worth waiting for!

The additional features and time shift means some adjustments in other parts of our plan:

May 4th remains the Subscriber deadline for Bonus Cartel Coins Grant to the sweet tune of 1000 Cartel Coins!

May 11th is no longer the deadline for Strongholds Early Access rewards but as a thank you to all of our Subscribers as of this date, we are giving you the following rewards:

Exclusive Subteroth minipet (delivered in Update 2.7.2)Two Character Titles “The Intrepid” (delivered in Update 2.7.2) and “The Illustrious” (delivered in Game Update 2.9)A sprawling Nar Shaddaa Sky Palace with five additional rooms unlockedStronghold Name "Galactic Stronghold"July 15th is our new deadline for Subscriber Rewards for Early Access, and you must be a Subscriber by this date to claim the Subscriber Early Access Rewards:

The luxurious Nar Shaddaa Sky Palace with three additional rooms unlockedStronghold Name "Galactic Stronghold"Character Title "The Illustrious" (delivered in Game Update 2.9)August 19th is Game Update 2.9: Galactic Strongholds Digital Expansion Subscriber Early Access!

Preferred Early Access and the Official Launch will follow in September and October. Be sure to visit www.swtor.com/galactic-strongholds for more specific dates and details.

Our goal is to keep you informed, so stay tuned in the next couple of weeks for an update on the summer roadmap, including Game Update 2.8. For all of us working on Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, we appreciate your support. We’re extremely excited about Galactic Strongholds and can’t wait to share it with you. Keep the feedback coming! See you in-game!

Hoping that they make the guild flagship a rest zone, with all the amenities, shuttles to all the planets, and an unlimited "teleport to guild flagship" pass. So people can log off their characters there.

Yeah, the housing stuff is for individuals, the guild ship stuff is the stuff I know our baby guild of "holy shit 5 people are logged in at once mark this day on your calendar" is probably not going to be able to do.

Also possibly of note, if you're subbed as of July 15th (this coming Tuesday), you get some free rooms (not as many as you would have if you were subbed on May 11th).

Quote

For a limited time, Subscribers as of May 11, 2014, receive a complimentary unlock of the luxurious Nar Shaddaa Stronghold Sky Palace plus FIVE ROOMS UNLOCKED (no purchase necessary – a value of 4,000,000 credits) and Subscribers as of July 15th receive the Stronghold with THREE ROOMS ULOCKED (a value of 1,500,000 credits)! Subscribers as of August 19th gain a complimentary unlock of the Nar Shaddaa Stronghold (minus the additional rooms) through September 15th.

Could be, at least with the larger rooms. From what I can tell the Dromund Kass and Coruscant are the less expensive of the housing with Nar Shadda higher and Tatooine being the most expensive.

Here's some stuff from the Q&A.

Can you sit in chairs but not by just clicking it. You will need to use /sit or /chair next to a chair.Can you duel inside strongholds? Yes you can duel inside strongholdsPricing of Strongholds: Dromund Kaas/Coruscant are most accessible. Tatooine/Nar Shaddaa are more expensive. Tatooine have bigger hooks and giant rooms to decorate. We want level 15-16 characters to be able to afford the strongholds. As you unlock rooms with more hook counts (i.e. balcony), they get more expensive.What does completion % mean? How many rooms you have unlocked and how many decorations you have placedIs there a rent? No rentAre there day/night cycles inside your strongholds? No day/night cyclesTravel options There are four: Planet, last location, fleet, starshipLighting can affect the room in some ways but not completely as the room already have natural lightning. So you can’t make a room pitch black for example.Decoration sources: Decoration vendors, Warzone vendors, Cartel Packs.Interactive decorations: Appearance modification station, item modification, legacy stronghold storage, guild bank, mailbox, stronghold directory, GTN.Chat inside stronghold: You will see the planet chat. We know lots of people want to see the fleet chat, it is something we are still talking about.You need to be a subscriber on the day the promotion ends (i.e. May 11 or July 15) to be eligible for the free stuff.Visiting opposite faction’s stronghold (including your own). Need to pay a fee to get smuggled across. Might be free for smugglers.All of the characters in your legacy can edit the stronghold.Personal stronghold cannot be decorated by anyone else. Exception is guild stronghold in which guild members can edit.For mounts, if you have it as a collection unlock, you cannot just acquire multiples via the collection window. You need to earn it multiple times to have it as multiple decorations.Decorations that you can only have one copy of? Coruscant only have one centerpiece hook so you can only have one copy of decorations that occupy the centerpiece hook.Decorations earned as an achievement – can you earn it again? – Yes, not 100% sure.Dromund Kaas is rainy – you can see the rain on your windows. It is dark and moody.Strongholds are rest areas.Freeform vs hook system – We want to make it easy for the average player to utilize as decorating can be difficult with a freeform system.Can you sell/buy decorations on the GTN – Yes, especially for crafting. There are also tradeable decoration components involved with Guild flagships etc that are hard to get and features an unique system we have not put in the game before.Mannequins to decorate your armor? – You can display companions wearing them.Training dummies – Not sure, need to ask Jack.How do I unlock more mount decorations – If you own the mount it is unlocked as a decoration.You can place only 1 copy of your companion in the stronghold, even if you have multiple characters with the same companion.You cannot dye decorationsDatacron decorations are acquired from planets (i..e Quesh, Hoth).Are strongholds embedded into the environment or instanced? – They are instanced.Decorations that are tied to achievements are retroactive. Anything related to a drop or completion will need to be reacquired.